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Terra Preta Soils and Their Archaeological Context in the Caquetá Basin of Southeast Colombia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Michael J. Eden ,
Warwick Bray ,
Leonor Herrera  and
Colin McEwan
Michael J. Eden
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, Bedford College, London University, London NW1 4NS, England
Warwick Bray
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology, London University, London WC1H 0PY, England
Leonor Herrera
Affiliation:
Instituto Colombiano de Antropología, Apartado Nacional 407, Bogotá, Colombia
Colin McEwan
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois, Urbana IL 61801, U.S.A.
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Abstract

Investigation of dark earths from two archaeological sites near Araracuara, on the Río Caquetá in Colombian Amazonas, indicates that these soils are anthropic, with characteristics similar to those of the terra preta soils of the Brazilian Amazon. The Araracuara sites belong to the Camani (plainware) phase of the second to ninth centuries A.D. and to the Nofueri phase (ninth to seventeenth centuries) with pottery of the Polychrome Tradition. The Araracuara examples are the first archaeological terra preta soils analyzed from west of Brazil, although similar materials are reported from Ecuador and Peru. The problems of recognizing and dating the first appearance of terra preta soils are discussed, and a plea is made for closer collaboration between archaeologists and soil scientists.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 49 , Issue 1 , January 1984 , pp. 125 - 140
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1984

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